News / World War Two
Artist creates model of Castle Park before Bristol Blitz
From 6pm on the evening of November 24 1940, the area of Bristol that we now know as Castle Park was devastated in a German bombing raid.
Before that night, it was the beating heart of our city containing shops, a theatre, cinemas, schools and much more.
Just the shells of St Peter’s Church and St Mary Le Port Church survive today as memorials but now a tour guide and artist has spent more than 150 hours painstakingly recreating the buildings and streets that were once here.
is needed now More than ever
The area that we know as Castle Park was once a densely packed area of Bristol – photo: Martin Booth
Duncan McKellar runs popular air raid shelter walking tours which take place both above and below ground, and he has been making the scale-model of Castle Park in the space underneath St Nick’s Market where people would have once sheltered from bombing raids.
“I wanted a visual representation to show people on the tour what I was talking about,” Duncan explained on a recent afternoon.
Duncan said that he had “pretty rough and ready street maps and basically mapped it out”, with former roads including Dolphin Street, Castle Mill Street and Bridge Street all part of the model with the buildings mostly made from reclaimed pinewood.
“As I then found more research including photographs and aerial footage and saw what other people have worked on, I have been going back into it to make it more accurate.”
Landmarks including the two surviving churches in the park can be picked out on Duncan’s model, as well as buildings no longer here such as the Dutch House on High Street, Castle School on Castle Green and the Regents Theatre on Castle Street.
“Bristol Bridge obviously needs to go in as well,” said Duncan, who is slowly building up a collection of items from the time including a recently purchased edition of the Evening Post from November 25 1940, the day after the raid, which has the headline: ‘Germans concentrate on West town’ – not mentioning Bristol once due to wartime censorship rules.
The Evening Post on the day after the bombing raid was not able to report that Bristol was hit, only saying a ‘West town’ – photo: Martin Booth
“In terms of visualising what used to be here, this is really useful,” added Duncan, who is also known for his artworks made from yellow scaffold pole protectors.
“I am also an artist so this has kept me sane because I haven’t managed to get to my studio. This is something that I have been able to work on.
“So there’s a creative angle but this model has also never previously existed. If it could be done reasonably well, it could be an artefact so it should exist.”
Looking along Mary Le Port Street in Duncan’s model – photo: Martin Booth
Looking along Mary Le Port Street today – photo: Martin Booth
For Duncan, the most challenging part of the build was choosing the level of accuracy and then having that same level of accuracy throughout the entire model.
“You can’t just have one bit with roofs. It’s all got to have roofs.
“I walk through Castle Park imagining these streets anyway. It has been an honour making this model.”
For more information and to book Duncan’s tour, visit www.st-nickstours.com. You can also explore Castle Park and the Old City on a walking tour with Martin Booth. For more information and to book, visit www.yuup.co/experiences/explore-bristol-s-quirkiest-corners
Main photo: Martin Booth
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